Because: "A girl is different. They want things. They need things on a regular schedule. Why, a girl's got purposes you and me can't even imagine. They got ideas in their heads you and me can't even suppose."

This Boy's Life , by Tobias Wolff: A Million Little... Photo-3847977.53434 - Times Union

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Winter's Tale, by Mark Helprin:

Because every sentence is impossibly beautiful.

Winter's Tale, by Mark Helprin:

Because every sentence is impossibly beautiful.

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Winter's Tale , by Mark Helprin: Because every sentence... Photo-3847976.53434 - Times Union

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The Adventures of Augie March, by Saul Bellow:

Because it starts like this: "I am an American, Chicago born -- Chicago, that somber city -- and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent." Or: because you're Augie.

If Don DeLillo and Denis Johnson had a kid, his name would be Stephen Wright, and he would have written this book so they could read it to him before bed, and the whole shebang would make perfect, hallucinatory sense.

What It Takes , by Richard Ben Cramer: This is as close as... Photo-3847954.53434 - Times Union

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The Continental Op, by Dashiell Hammett:

The hard-boiled tough-guy detective -- the only pure American genre -- invented.

The Continental Op, by Dashiell Hammett:

The hard-boiled tough-guy detective -- the only pure American genre -- invented.

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The Continental Op , by Dashiell Hammett: The hard-boiled... Photo-3847953.53434 - Times Union

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The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene:

A kind of flesh-bound Bible.

The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene:

A kind of flesh-bound Bible.

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The Power and the Glory , by Graham Greene: A kind of... Photo-3847952.53434 - Times Union

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So Long, See You Tomorrow, by William Maxwell:

Remember your best friend from childhood, the one who's gone? Because of him.

So Long, See You Tomorrow, by William Maxwell:

Remember your best friend from childhood, the one who's gone? Because of him.

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So Long, See You Tomorrow , by William Maxwell: Remember your... Photo-3847951.53434 - Times Union

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Native Son, by Richard Wright:

Because the novel's main character asks this question: "Why were there so many [prison] cells?" Because the novel itself is the cruel answer.

Native Son, by Richard Wright:

Because the novel's main character asks this question: "Why were there so many [prison] cells?" Because the novel itself is the cruel answer.

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Native Son , by Richard Wright: Because the novel's main... Photo-3847950.53434 - Times Union

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Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, by James Agee and Walker Evans:

The only truly accomplished partnership in America letters.

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, by James Agee and Walker Evans:

The only truly accomplished partnership in America letters.

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Let Us Now Praise Famous Men , by James Agee and Walker Evans:... Photo-3847949.53434 - Times Union

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Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner:

A gorgeous and gorgeously told story of a crippled man struggling to make sense of his grandparents' lives and the coming desolation of the environment. The narrator is unreliable, prophetic, and inconveniently truthful.